Homage to Catalonia

George Orwell

Homage to Catalonia is an account of the time George Orwell spent
fighting with the militia during the Spanish civil war. Not only is it
a vivid description from the view of an ordinary soldier of one of the
most significant political events of the century (among other things the
only time a significant area has been under the control of an anarchist
organisation), it is also one of the most realistic portrayals ever of
what war is actually like at the front line.

The appendices deal in some depth with the political machinations on the
Republican side: how the Communist Party allied itself with right wing
socialists and liberals to crush the POUM, with the standard "communist"
accusation that anyone to the left of them were Trotskyists and therefore
fascist traitors.